Most of our schoolmates were relaxing. I think I would be among the few who busied themselves with reading. What was I, in particular, even reading — flipping pages of a dictionary at that opportune time. Ridiculous isn’t it!?
‘Situation’ appeared from nowhere, hitting at his peak with pettiness: “We do not”, as if it’s a taboo, “learn English!” He
Read full articlecontinued to laugh satisfactorily at me before taking a gentle gait away. I didn’t mind him much; exam fever had poorly paralysed me.
It was our first exam, as fresh senior high students. And we’ve already become paddies after breaching the rule of familiarisation. Situation is just a nickname of Adams. I have mine too. You know that senior high school craze where students prefer their nicknames more than their real names.
Exam time started ringing. I have then loaned my head new vocabularies and their meaning from the dictionary. I wouldn’t want to go into the exam hall and would have to be wrestling with composition. Especially that part which requires one to get a similar word, or a phrase to replace an already underlined word in the passage, and the other daunting challenges the core English paper comes with.
However herculean the paper was, we did away with it. When school resumed for the second term and our exam papers were being shared in bits then I saw the real scoffing nature of 'Situation'.
Christian Religious Studies (C.R.S) paper was shared. We both passed, just that my mark was higher than his. Nothing happened. We went home manageably after school.
A day after the English paper followed. I won’t recollect my grade but I know I failed, not horribly though. Situation scored above 65. I went through my paper to check what went wrong. All the five different words (synonyms) I had provided for the underlined words in the passage didn’t score me a mark. I simply didn’t obey the simple rules. For instance, if an underlined word was in the ‘past’, I provided a similar word alright but not that I put it in the past tense as it was in the passage.
The essay I wrote had scribbled red pen used all over it — signaling that my grammar, to be charitable to myself, wasn’t the best. I was stunned. I shouldn’t have been because that was a good comeuppance.
We had to go home. Normally, we all stroll together through our main gate before we disperse and would later meet at night, at La Market, to share some time together. We didn’t want to miss Ayi Visa’s vibes those days.
This round I was very unlucky, our seniors were all over campus. Situation, having seen their presence, did fold his English paper into his front pocket and brandish it. My silent prayer was that we’d pass by these seniors without them asking to view his paper. Luck wasn’t on my side. Each and every group of seniors we’d meet asked to check his score. He received praises and thunderous commendations. When those seniors flipped through my paper, they’d nod their heads and say, “you must sit up!”
Before we’d disperse at the school gate, I humbly asked to have a look at Situation’s test paper. And boy, he didn’t get any red pen scribbled on his paper; all his essay, tenses, and punctuations were placed correctly. I didn’t say a word.
As for the brandishing of his exam papers, it never ended, especially whenever he blew a paper. That said, on times that I outscored him, in subjects like history, C.R.S, Geography, or Economics, I never learnt to make my paper apparent for him to feel bedraggled.
Core English is a subject most junior or high school students do take for granted. Mayhaps for it being our official language and the fact that it doesn’t involve calculation. Though I don’t have the statistics, suffice to say that most of them hardly have the grounding of the subject. They keep grappling with the subject. And yet would pompously claim ‘we don’t learn English’.
Situation, I would say, had had a good foundation in the English language during his primary and junior high school days before we had met. So for him, even if he didn’t study he could still produce the average mark. Me, for instance, I didn’t get it solid as he had gotten it. If it was my tutors who didn’t do a good job, or I was just dumb to have understood what they taught us, only heaven knows.
Because of peer influence, I loosely dashed into the fantasy of ‘we don’t learn English’. I began regarding myself as though I know the English subject when I actually didn’t know anything. With this foolhardiness, I would later pay for it with tears, and regrets, and be eaten alive later in my life, in a humiliating way.
In class one, we were asked to speak English in class. Our friend, Mavis, got her name recorded in the names of talkative and had to defend her innocence. As her heart was palpitating because Mrs. Tackey (if I’ve not mistaken the name) had raised the cane and was about to flog her, she said furiously: “ni mi pic English…ooba ni oba yi mi.” To wit: as I’ve spoken English you want to beat me. “Ni” and the rest of the phrases are a Ga phrases (a local dialect spoken by the people of Accra), except “English”.
Back at senior school, one would always tread cautiously, not to find himself into the trap of Hellen or Adiza. These are sharped teeth girls with a good command of the English language. If one jokes, they’d bathe one with their dominance over the language. They all, I believe, had had a good foundation of the English language before joining us in senior high.
Without forgetting my good friend, Titus who, when a small boy went niggardly with him, said, “Titus, who are you!” Titus responded: “are you asking me who are me!?” This incident is dated like seventeen years ago, my big brother would attest to it.
All these incidents are towing towards one lane: the English subject is a science on its own. It has rules and formulas, just that they’re are not frightening as rocket science or calculus. But it wouldn’t be wrong for one to say that English could be more difficult than mathematics. And It ought to be given serious consideration.
When the-we-don’t-learn-English foolhardiness finally flew me into a remedial class (NovDec), to prepare and rewrite the core English paper then I learnt the story of my life. That I messed up!
There, however, the English tutor, for the first time in my life, saw a teacher teaching this particular language as if it was a science subject. She took her time and explained everything and the rules governing its branches like subject-verb agreement, concords, word usage, grammar, et cetera, in great detail. Her adeptness in the subject was relatable and, it resuscitated the dead English language in me.
Thus, skillful teachers handling the English subject is the first step towards winning. From the shackles of remedial class, I met Eric Nuamah Korankye on the media. He’s a writer, editor, proofreader, an English tutor, etc. And he runs a grammar program on social media platforms dubbed Before Breakfast Lessons (BBL). He has a great knack for teaching the English language. The lessons he posts honed my understanding of the English subject a thousand times better. The many obstacles on my way; those that I should have understood from primary, junior, or senior high and couldn’t, he demystified them all.
Rebuilding the reading culture must be prioritized, starting right from the lower primary. Reading exposes students to the technicalities of English. They would thus stand firmly against the test of time in English, giving them authority over the subject. Those who read voraciously, communicate exquisitely, and write well. They’re not like others who’d not even spend time reading a book other than their learning notes.
The above is what primary, junior, and high school students need to be taken through. But the reality is different. Their love for books is dead. It will shock one to know that students spend more time on TikTok and watching irrelevant things than reading and discussing protagonist or antagonist, or scenes, etc., in books.
Three junior high students I met on my way today were also accentuating the the-we-don’t-learn-English anthem. I spent some time with them and gave them cogent reasons they’d all need to learn English. And that they shouldn’t follow the crowd like I did follow Situation fifteen years ago and horribly lost track of the rudiments of English.
Even English professors still learn English. They take reading seriously. The Brits still learn English as a subject. Book lovers have formed book clubs and are discussing books to better their understanding of the language. The technocrats always choose reading over any other thing. Some go bored if they haven’t read in hours or days.
The way forward: English needs to be learnt. Learning, if one would remember, is a never-ending journey.
Students taking an exam
